Why I Hate New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is overhyped, overrated, and overdone. I get the excitement - a new year, a new beginning, a day off of work. Woohoo. But why, oh why, is there so much pressure for it to be Legen -wait for it - dary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqf1BmN4Dag

Every year I get excited for New Year's Eve and every year it is a let down. The problem? Huge expectations. I feel like nearly every movie and every TV show hypes the night up to ridiculous epic proportions. "Friends" has a few good realistic New Year's Eve episodes (not to mention one of the BEST episodes ever....The One With All The Resolutions Season 5, Episode 11) and the "Sex and the City" movie showed less than perfect moments at midnight. I am thankful for those moments because my own New Year's Eves have always seemed to be below par.

December 31, 2008
My first year out of college and I was dating a nice enough guy, but really I should have known this was coming. He was nice, but being nice doesn't translate to making all your dreams come true. My expectations of a New Years in Madison were of epic proportions; I knew the bartenders so I wouldn't have to wait for drinks, I knew the bouncers so I wouldn't have to wait outside in the cold, I even had a new dress to rock on the big night. Unfortunately it snowed, a lot. It's Wisconsin, I should have expected that wrench in the plans. But I braved the weather anyway and wore the open toed shoes that matched the dress with a great going out coat that I usually wouldn't risk on such a big night (drunkies spilling on it is my big fear). The night ended with the group splitting up, someone stealing my coat, getting frost bite on a toe or two, and my date not giving a hoot if I was there or not. I ended up heading home around 1am, then woke up at 5am and decided to rally. I headed down the street to another bar, one that was closing around 8am. Most of the city's bartenders were partying there since they had closed their own establishments a few hours earlier... holy shit show. People were falling over, making out, crying, puking, eating insane amounts of french fries, and above all, spilling drinks. When I finally made it to the bar, the bartenders were too drunk to make a good drink and I ended up with a mimosa made with white wine instead of champagne. Don't try it, it's not good. I finally admitted defeat and headed back to my apartment.

December 31, 2009
Best plans ever! I was going to drive down to Chicago with Kay and her boyfriend. We were going to meet up with my boyfriend and hit up a club downtown. We had the tickets and again, I bought the best dress. I even bought the best shoes. It was going to be epic.
Not. So. Much.
The night started falling apart a few nights earlier. Kay's boyfriend decided he didn't want to go to Chicago and promised that he would take her there some other weekend if she would just give in and stay in Wisconsin for New Year's Eve. She caved. I can't blame her, he's her boyfriend and they are still together. I was a bit unhappy though - I was pretty jazzed to spend New Year's with my best friend! Oh well, I still was going to be with my boyfriend and I would get to wear my new dress. I just had to get through a day of work first.
I woke up earlllly and headed to the stores I had to check before heading down to Chicago. Everything began going wrong immediately. I ripped open my finger around 9am and there was quite a bit of blood. The store manager had to dig up a bandaid and helped me clean it up. Did I let it get to me? No! I chatted with other workers about my exciting plans. The day was moving along and I didn't even mind the grouchy store managers I invariably met. I  realized I was hitting a time crunch and started to pick up the pace. I was down to just a few more stores when I got the phone call - two more stores on my list. Eff. Ok, I can do this! I'll just skip lunch and speed. I was back in good spirits when I got the second call - a rep calling to say I had checked stores on his list. Yep, that's right. Three of the stores that I had spent hours at, hauling beer and listening to angry store owners bitch about the holiday, yep, someone else was also covering them. Our bosses hadn't coordinated anything. I then received a third call; another store I had checked was another rep's. She was confused too. AWESOME. So basically I wasted my time, injured myself, and was about to faint from low blood sugar. I called a friend and had a breakdown. There was absolutely no way I could make it to Chicago in plenty of time now. I would have to battle the rest of the universe entering the city after work, probably have to hire a crane to move a car so that I could steal a parking spot, and then still have no time to look as great as I wanted to. I was angry and exhausted by the time I got home so I took Nyquil and went to sleep around 10pm. I embraced the New Year in the morning.

December 31, 2010
Yeah, you're right. It hasn't happened yet. Here's the thing though; 2010 has been amazing. More than I could ever imagine for myself. There have definitely been tough times, like the death of a close family friend and the breakup with 2009 boyfriend. Overall though, it has been wonderful. New friends, new food, new experiences - can't beat that. Which is why I'm terrified that the amazingly awesome, potentially legendary plans we have for New Year's are all going to go horribly wrong. We are heading to Budapest - an idea I had months ago and finally everyone got on board. I'm meeting up with 6 girlfriends I lived with this summer and the best words to describe them are fun and ridiculous. I'll be in a gorgeous city with great friends. How could that go wrong? WELL. The guys started changing New Year's plans a few days ago. No one wanted to drive so we'd have to take a train. Then no one wanted to go to Budapest/train wasn't an option/I'm not really sure what exactly happened and then they wanted to go to Barcelona. WHAT?! That is not Budapest. My friends are not meeting us in Barcelona. And it is about twice as far, and we'd have to drive through about 18 other awesome cities to get there. I never did figure out why they chose Barcelona. I was getting so mad that I wanted to punch a chicken in the face or take a bat to a tree. Fortunately, I checked Facebook today and apparently the original Budapest plans are back on. I have NO idea what happened that led to this massive, heart attack inducing circle, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed they don't change their minds again.

So what do I do? Do I start setting the bar lower? Tell myself not to expect New Year's to be anything different from a regular Friday night? I guess that just feels like giving up to me. I want New Year's Eve to be legendary. I want an epic evening of drinking and dancing. I want to wear my 2009 New Year's dress and damn it, I want compliments! But I'm tired of being super excited and then being disappointed. Paige has always told me to hold out for the great guys, never to settle for less than perfect love stories. Ok, she didn't say it like that, but that is the life lesson I will take away from my friendship with her. I feel like I should be able to apply that concept to New Year's Eve. I shouldn't have to settle for lame New Year's experiences - but that also means I have to be an active participant. I have to make sure it becomes legendary. Epic nights don't just happen to people, we make them happen for ourselves.

So here is my decision: Whatever happens, this year is going to be LEGEN - wait for it - DARY!